Remember while Rewind Shows are commercial free you can always support our show by Joining the MSB or simply by doing your Amazon.com shopping though TspAz.com

Last week a listener asked about question about building your own meals for a bug out bag or for back packing etc. As it was a feed back show I gave the 5 minute answer to the question. Today we dig deeper, I will give you some methods of creating long term storeable but ready to cook rations to supplement products like Mountain House, etc. These recipes are more about building bases first and then customizing them to taste.

Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK and you might hear yourself on the air.

Remember while Rewind Shows are commercial free you can always support our show by Joining the MSB or simply by doing your Amazon.com shopping though TspAz.com

I was going to call this show “14 Rules for Being a Modern Survivalist” but I realized that would violate my survival tenet that reads…

“Your personal philosophy is more important for you than mine! You are the master of your own life and if you don’t agree with my views, great, define, understand and implement your own. The biggest thing you can do is understand that you are in control of your life and that what you do matters. Those two factors have the greatest impact on individual survival across every demographic you can imagine.”

For me that is a deep intrinsic belief not just a tenet of modern survival philosophy. I may come across as fully convinced in my beliefs and passionate about them to the extreme but that doesn’t mean I wish to impose them on any other person. So I decided I would simply let you guys know today about 10 of the “rules” that I follow in my life. Some are very old for me, they have guided me since childhood, others I have gained in recent years on my walk as a modern survivalist…

Join Me Today As I Discuss…

Ignore politicians, do not however ignore their actions and resulting consequences

Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK (866-658-4465) and you might hear yourself on the air.

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Richard spent 26 years as a software engineer in Austin, TX, before he and his family moved four hours away in the summer of 2015 to an area where they didn’t know anyone. They took their 10’th grade daughter, kicking and screaming, from one of the best Government schools in Texas to a totally unknown (to them) small school in a small community.

Since then, they have built a commercial aquaponics system and started to sell into the market. Richard has his PDC from the online Geoff Lawton program in 2014 and has been a listener to the survival podcast since episode 415 and an MSB member for three years.

This is one of those rare shows were I was proactive in asking the guest to fill out a guest survey form. I happened to connect with Richard after publishing one of my videos on youtube. It was a small water garden system I was doing and he gave me a link to his set up, I was blown away! He then told me how long he had been listening to TSP and that we were partly why he had made this life change, so I asked him right away to please come share his story. Today you will hear that story. It is pretty awesome.

Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK (866-658-4465) and you might hear yourself on the air.

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It is also 26-114 dollars based on the options you pick. Even at the lowest priced option if you wanted one for every room of a 8 room house, you are looking at 200 bucks. Frankly for this type of thing, it is over kill. I wanted an affordable solution for every room lighting during an extended blackout.

I started looking around and dozens of companies are marketing these little pop up lanterns with minor differences. The housings are almost identical. Some are very inexpensive and some cost almost as much as The Siege, none are as good though.

Well I love Etekcity which has a lot of really cool stuff much of which I have reviewed in the past like their Thermal Gun, Power Failure Lights and Remote Control Electrical Outlets. So I checked and they have this four pack for only $25.99 with free shipping. This pack is an Amazon best seller with over a 1000 reviews and an average of 5 stars.

But I always check the one star reviews before picking an item. Many times you can tell said reviews are written by idiots. In this case, however; they bothered me. Almost all of them say they got one that didn’t work out of the box and then never worked again. So I began checking other options, heck it is almost like ever single brand of these things are clones. They all have great reviews, a few bad reviews and all the different ones have almost the exact same complaint, dead on arrival or after one use.

So I contacted Etekcity who has great service and said basically that it is understandable at this price point and selling so many a few will have problems, but what is your return/replacement policy and this is what I got back in return, within an hour by the way!

Hello Jack,

Thank you for reaching out to us and thank you for all the feedback we appreciate it. Honestly we sell hundreds if not a thousand of these lanterns a day and we do have problems with them, they are not perfect.

Typically the main issue is a little toggle switch in the base that likely during shipping breaks unfortunately and once in awhile the top of the lantern is cracked or loose again probably due to shipping.

Once the lantern makes it to the customer and they arrive in good order we never hear from the customer because they seem to not fail with normal use.

We usually only hear from the customers the moment they open the package and find the damage and then we immediately send out a replacement and then all lanterns come with a 1 year warranty.

These are not the worlds greatest lantern but for around $6 each, they are one of amazons best sellers and we think for the price they are the best around.

thank you

Okay so every single one of those one star reviews are people that simply could have gotten a free replacement, on a $6.50 product? Honestly this is why I have recommended so many things from Etekcity.

Talk about honesty in a nut shell they said, “hey look when you sell this many products of this type some will have problems, but we stand by and replace them”, what more could you ask for for 6 bucks?

With that I was sold, I got two sets, we have them in our black out kits and if one fails, I don’t care I have 8! That said all of mine have worked just fine and were in perfect shape when they got here. But this was important to me, I wanted to be sure that if you did have a problem, Etekcity would fix it and I wanted to give you a lot cost option for back up lighting. And hey even at this stupid cheap price, batteries are included! Please consider that even cheap ass Rayovac Batteries are about 8 bucks for a 12-Pack.

And these do that, they will give you 12 full hours of light off three measly AA batteries. So to me at the cost and for what they do this is the best deal in back up LED lighting for your house and your BOK (Black Out Kit). So I really recommend you pick up at least one Etekcity’s 4 Pack of LED Lanterns if you don’t have that base covered already. They seem like a cool gift idea as well.

Remember you can always find the TSP Amazon Item of the day by just going to TspAz.com and by shopping at TspAz.com anytime you shop on Amazon you help support TSP and the work we do here no matter what you buy.

P.S.– I have noticed a few negative reviews complaining of leaking batteries ruining these lanterns. Here is my rule for batteries, never store them in your devices for long periods of time. I don’t care if the device is expensive or cheap, I don’t care of the batteries are generic or top brand, just don’t do it.

We keep flashlights (mostly D-Cell Maglites) around the house, we use them all the time. Used devices never seem to have this problem. When they start to weaken we replace them.

In our BOK we keep our devices and with them a ziplock bag with 4 sets of batteries per device in the bag. We use our power failure lights and flashlights to retrieve our BOK and simply put the batteries in at that point and time.

Note that it is true that battery manufacturers are required by law to replace any device that leaking batteries destroy. That doesn’t help in the middle of a black out though does it? Simply put any device that is not used often, take the batteries out of it, store them with it and save yourself the headache.

Preppers, survivalists, call us what you want but the media makes us all out to be tin hat conspiracy theory obsessed loons. But what if I told you that being prepared is the only responsible action you can take as an adult in the modern world.

If you have a family this should be beyond obvious. You are responsible for making sure your children are fed, warm and as comfortable as possible in any given circumstances. If you loved your spouse enough to pledge your life to them, do you owe them the concern for their life long safety and well being as well?

What if you are single, no one to worry about? Well if you are stranded, stuck, hurt, hungry, fill in the blank in a bad time, you are going to end up using resources that others might need.

The honest truth is we should all see preparedness as a a basic civic responsibility. I am so sick of hearing how strong America is. It always comes down to our military. That is like me claiming I am great at football because my favorite team has won 6 Super Bowls, it is just plain stupid.

Our nation is dramatically weak right now. If we were ever to experience terrorism say the way it was in Northern Ireland during “the troubles”, we would literally shut down. During super storm Sandy, people in good neighborhoods were dumpster diving for food only 48 hours into the disaster, 48 hours and willing to eat garbage.

Join Me Today to Discuss…

Yes you have rights, you also have responsibilities

How weak is America today

A lesson from the shooting of an Ohio firefighter yesterday

What would happen if 2 guys just began starting fires here and there

What will our nation look like if 20 million people lose their jobs

Imagine how much damage could be done with phyical attacks on the grid

Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK (866-658-4465) and you might hear yourself on the air.

Also remember we have an expert council that can answer you questions. If you have a question send it to jack at thesurvivalpodcast.com with TSPC Epert in the subject line. Ask your question in one to two sentences so it is clear then provide any additional details. Make sure to tell me what council member the question is for. You Meet the Expert Council at this Link.

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Remember in addition to discounts to over 40 vendors who supply stuff you are likely buying anyway, tons of free ebooks and video content, MSB Members also get every edition of The Survival Podcast ever produced in convenient zip files in blocks of 24. More info on the MSB can be found here.

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is Frontier Whole Chamomile Flower which is sold by the pound. This stuff is awesome, I use it in many of my teas and in my infamous “Three Flowers Blend” for mead.

There is a lot to like about this item. First and this is important to me, these are whole flowers as you can see in the photo above. I have purchased many different brands of chamomile and many times I have gotten what looked more like dust and chaff than whole flowers.

Next this is an Organic product. I would love to buy organic or local all the time, but we all have financial limits. With herbs though, especially in bulk you can generally justify the very small cost increase. This product is actually less per pound than some competing non organic options.

Lastly is taste, and face it if you don’t get good flavor what is the point. Any medicinal or nutritional value is going to be depleted if flavor is depleted. This stuff has a wonderful sweet flavor and a characterist I can only describe as “buttery”.

Both of these are best made with a quality tea infuser or a French Press. When I make them with a french press I use four tablespoons for my first batch and then just add 1 additional tablespoon for each additional batch that day.

Three Flowers Blend started as a tea, frankly I didn’t really like it as a hot or even a cold tea. The heather imparts a bitterness that isn’t really pleasant in a sipping tea. But it intrigued me so I tried making a mead with it and man was it amazing. People love it.

Per gallon of mead, use 3/4th of a cup of 3FB, 3 pounds of honey and 1 Tablespoon of Fermax. Ferment for 30 days with a pack each of Cuvee and Pasteur Blanc yeast. Rack and ferment at least 15 more days until completely clear. Then bottle.

Finally I want to point out that Frontier Whole Chamomile Flower tea is damn good all by itself. Just about 2 tablespoons to the large cup or 1 tablespoon to a standard tea cup and it is wonderful tea. It is also a great ingredient in herbal salves and in soap making.

Additionally chamomile is wonderful for bees, just make a concentrated tea with your French Press, dump that into your sugar syrup when you are making it up and feed as normal. DO NOT put loose leaf tea directly into your syrup, it will make a mess you can’t imagine. I don’t know this from experience, I know it from common sense, trust me on it.

Also did you know Chamomile tea suppresses mold? I have learned this growing micro greens. I just make up a strong tea and put it in a spray bottle and spray young micro greens with it to suppress mold from messing them up and it works great. I also toss a pinch in my sunflower soaking bucket for my sunflower spouts for the birds and no mold.

Lastly, chamomile also makes wonderful herbal cough drops you can make yourself, here is an article on doing that with any herbs of your choice. It is super easy and much better than what you buy in the store.

Remember you can always find the TSP Amazon Item of the day by just going to TspAz.com and by shopping at TspAz.com anytime you shop on Amazon you help support TSP and the work we do here no matter what you buy.

P.S. – You will note that all the links above are for one pound bags. I buy in bulk because it is cheaper, they store forever if you put them in sealed ball jars and I use a lot.

You will also note that all of the linked items are Davidson’s, Frontier or Starwest Botanicals. I have never been unhappy with any of these companies. So I usually shop all three for any bulk herb and pick the best price because to me they are all beyond stellar. The one exception is heather flowers, because they do not carry them. If you want to make some 3FB just know 4 ounces of heather flower is a LOT of heather and unlike many other herbs you likely won’t use it for many other things.

Today on The Survival Podcast I take your emails on automation and job loss, more on emergencies and ambulance service, over reliance on your preps and more.

Make sure if you submit content for a feedback show that you put something like “comment for jack”, “question for jack” or “article for jack” in the subject line to assure proper identification for my screening process.

Please understand I receive several hundred emails a day and can’t get them all on the air.

I also do put out a lot of information on Facebook from emails that I can’t fit on the program though so keep em coming.

Join Me Today As I Respond to Your Calls and Discuss…

The grocery store I predicted is here, by Amazon

A guy in North Texas is looking for someone to split a pallet of barley for fodder

An update on our prior segment on emergencies, hospitals and ambulance service

Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK (866-658-4465) and you might hear yourself on the air.

Join the MSB Today

Want Every Episode of TSP Ever Produced?

Remember in addition to discounts to over 40 vendors who supply stuff you are likely buying anyway, tons of free ebooks and video content, MSB Members also get every edition of The Survival Podcast ever produced in convenient zip files in blocks of 24. More info on the MSB can be found here.

Dynasty Wealth Partners

Our TSP Business Directory featured mention of the week is Dynasty Wealth Partners. They are an authorized Infinite Banking Practitioner. Dynasty Wealth can help create multi-generational wealth. Their strategies show you how to keep more of your money, have more control over your finances, pay less taxes and build more wealth for now and for the future.

Dynasty Wealth has three websites to advise you on specific needs. They are Dynasty Banking, College Savings Plus and Business without Banks. Each of these areas of expertise will appeal to those that are interested in learning more about those topics. They have an excellent blog that features posts to enlighten you to wealth preservation and debt elimination.

The Definition of Banking

Michael has a wealth or resources on his site about the Infinite Banking Concept, if you are interested in learning more. You can check out his blog here, but I wanted to share a particularly interesting section from his site:

“Banking, banks, savings and loans, credit union etc. Do the commercial banks own these words? Think about the word – Bank. What does that mean? You see we have blood banks, memory banks, snow banks etc. A bank can also mean a slope that goes to a body of water, like a river bank.

Commercial bankers do not own the word bank. What we would like for you to understand today that banking is a function. Banking in the sense of money is an action where someone deposits money into a pool, that which can then be loaned out to generate revenue.

In modern times customers of a bank or credit union deposit their money (which is actually a liability on the banks balance sheet). Then through the use of fractional reserve lending the bank can create loans based off of the allowable fraction determined by the central bank. This is approximately around 3% of deposits to the commercial bank.

Reserve requirements are the amount of funds that a depository institution must hold in reserve against specified deposit liabilities. Within limits specified by law, the Board of Governors has sole authority over changes in reserve requirements. Depository institutions must hold reserves in the form of vault cash or deposits with Federal Reserve Banks. (source: www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/reservereq.htm )

In the United States, a reserve requirement(or liquidity ratio) is a minimum value, set by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, of the ratio of required reserves to some category of deposits held at depository institutions (e.g., commercial bank including US branch of a foreign bank, savings and loan association, savings bank, credit union). The only deposit categories currently subject to reserve requirements are net transactions accounts, mainly checking accounts. (source: Wikipedia )

Your deposits into your current bank account go on to become loans for your friends, neighbors, and even yourself. Most people think that banks earn the difference of what they pay you in interest and what they charge in interest on loans. This is only partially true. Because of the fractional reserve system banks can earn hundreds of percent based off one deposit.

I explained all this so that you will know that banking is a function and not a place downtown with a large nice building where people in suits go to work everyday called a Bank.

Once you understand the Banking function you can then go on to learn how you can take advantage of “Becoming Your Own Banker”. Meaning, you create a pool of money that builds over time, then when you need access to money you can get said money. When created properly you will have more control, you will be able to capture the interest that is normally going to the commercial banks as profits which in turns gives you even more money in the future.”

Thanks to Dynasty Wealth and all the TSP Directory Businesses

Be sure to check out Dynasty Wealth Partners and the other outstanding businesses right here in the TSP community. Remember to support small business when you can. Shop local and shop within our online community here at TSP. Next week, I will be writing on Fluid Depiction LLC. They are an IT contract and Web Development company right out of the TSP audience. Be sure to check it out.

If you haven’t already listed your business here on the TSP site, you can get started today for less than $1 a month. Build resiliency into your life by becoming your own boss. As we approach the end of 2016, think about opportunities around you, and seriously consider the entrepreneurial path. The only thing stopping you is yourself!

In the body of your email first tell me the council member your question is for. Second ask your question concisely in one to two sentences maximum. Third any and all details after that. This is the formula to give you the best chance of getting on the air.

I do what I can to get as many of your questions as possible on the air but can’t always get to all of them. Our council is made of a wide variety of experts in everything from the tactical to the practical and everything in between.

To get more information on our Expert Council visit our “Meet the Expert Council Page” to learn more about them and their specific areas of expertise.

Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK (866-658-4465) and you might hear yourself on the air.

Join the MSB Today

Want Every Episode of TSP Ever Produced?

Remember in addition to discounts to over 40 vendors who supply stuff you are likely buying anyway, tons of free ebooks and video content, MSB Members also get every edition of The Survival Podcast ever produced in convenient zip files in blocks of 24. More info on the MSB can be found here.

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day Kirkland Signature Walnuts. One of the great things about the paleo life is nuts are on the menu, especially nuts like walnuts. But have you looked at the price of shelled walnuts in the store?

When I found these I knew I was on to something, a three pound bag is only about 17 bucks and it ships free to your house on Amazon prime. Now three pounds is a lot and these are raw nuts so this is what I do. I put a half pound a piece into small vacuum seal bags, seal them up and keep them in the freezer and take them out as I need them.

I use these a variety of ways. First is just plain snacking, you have to go easy on nuts while on a paleo eating plan because even though they are low carb they are very calorically dense. So when I snack on them I will take out about a handful (2 ounces) and put the rest away. They go great with some beef jerky and add a great crunch with say some yogurt cheese and pepper sticks.

Do you miss croutons on your salad or just want even more crunch. Okay take a few handfuls of these, get a dry no stick skillet nice and warm and toss these in, toast them until they just begin to brown. Let them cool and toss them on any salad of your choosing and man they are great. My favorite is a spinach salad, with crumbled blue cheese, some sliced green apple, bacon, some boiled eggs (quail eggs split sideways are nice) and these walnuts. My take on a Waldorf.

Want to take something extremely simple and make it over the top? Okay again start by toasting some walnuts, this time give them a slight rough chop so they are all about 1/4 sized. Once they start to toast add bacon grease to the pan and trimmed green beans, saute the green beans until just done, that means bright green and still a little crisp in the center. Remove from the pan, top with some bacon crumbles and a bit of real Parmesan cheese.

The entire thing takes perhaps 10 minutes to do at most. It is simple you season it with some salt an pepper other than that there are only 4 ingredients but it is blow you away good. Oh and it is healthy and 100% paleo/low carb.

I am sure there are other things you can come up to do with walnuts. The next thing I want to try is Turkish Walnut Soup. In any event if you want to put some high quality crunch into your life, check out, Kirkland Signature Walnuts today.

Remember you can always find the TSP Amazon Item of the day by just going to TspAz.com and by shopping at TspAz.com anytime you shop on Amazon you help support TSP and the work we do here no matter what you buy.